Project MUSE®: Philosophy East and West - Latest Articleshttp://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Africa Today.daily12016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressVol. 50, no. 4 (2000) through current issueLatest Articles: Philosophy East and WestTWOProject MUSE®Philosophy East and West1529-18980031-8221Latest articles in Philosophy East and West. Feed provided by Project MUSE®

On Li Zehou’s Philosophy: An Introduction by Three Translatorshttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633048
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Li Zehou (b. 1930) is perhaps best known among Western audiences for his work on aesthetics. This is mainly due to the fact that translations of his writings available in English are mostly limited to his aesthetics.1 The content of A Response to Michael Sandel and Other Matters (Huiying Sangde’er ji qita 回應桑德爾及其他) differs greatly from these previous translations. Published in Chinese in 2014, it is one of Li’s most recent books, and in it he discusses several main points of the systematic philosophical outlook he has developed over recent decades, and places them in relation to Western liberalism. A Response thus aims far beyond responding to Michael Sandel’s views on justice and morality as presented in the
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallOn Li Zehou’s Philosophy: An Introduction by Three Translators2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressOn Li Zehou’s Philosophy: An Introduction by Three TranslatorsWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®386022016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13A Response to Michael Sandel and Other Mattershttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633049
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Are you familiar with Michael Sandel’s work?Yes I am. In the nineties I read several books on communitarianism, including Michael Sandel’s Democracy’s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy.What do you think of communitarianism?I discussed communitarianism in my books Five Essays from 1999 (Jimao wu shuo 己卯五说) and, especially, Historical Ontology (Lishi bentilun 历史本体论) more than ten years ago. My thoughts have not changed since then. Simply put, I think communitarianism is the product of developed countries with long traditions of liberalism. It has referential value, but if directly or indiscriminately adopted in other societies it can be quite dangerous.In recent years Sandel has become very
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallA Response to Michael Sandel and Other Matters2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressA Response to Michael Sandel and Other MattersWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®3072492016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Wittgenstein and the Analects on the Ethics of Clarificationhttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633050
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At first glance, it might seem an odd pairing: the Analects and Wittgenstein. Comparison between a classical Chinese philosophical text, whose primary topics were the cultivation of xiao (filial piety) and he (social harmony), and the corpus of an early to mid-twentieth-century Austrian philosopher, whose primary topics had to do with logic, language, and the nature of philosophy, does not obviously recommend itself. Yet, I contend in this article that there is much to be gained from careful comparison between these two very different pictures of philosophy, particularly where it comes to the practices of clarifying that which is confused or obscured. This study will aid primarily in developing Wittgensteinian
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallWittgenstein and the Analects on the Ethics of Clarification2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressWittgenstein and the Analects on the Ethics of ClarificationWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®903612016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Evaluative Desire (Yu 欲) in the Menciushttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633051
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The concept of yu 欲 (desire) is an under-explored concept in the scholarship on early Confucianism. Perhaps due to the focus on the term “the yu of eyes and ears,” a common term in early Chinese philosophy denoting desires for sensual gratification, or on the Daoist stance on desires (especially that of Laozi), many scholars tend to emphasize the negative and the hedonistic connotations of the term. For example, Chad Hansen notes that the early Confucians do not “make desires central in their account of human guidance,”1 and that Confucius uses “desire” “more to describe dispositions that conflict with his favored dao.”2 In the same vein, when many scholars analyze Xunzi’s account of desires they focus on its
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallEvaluative Desire (Yu 欲) in the Mencius2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressEvaluative Desire (Yu 欲) in the MenciusWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®1357532016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Re-exploring Wang Yangming’s Theory of Liangzhi: Translation, Transliteration, and Interpretationhttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633052
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Admittedly there exists a considerable amount of contemporary literature on liangzhi that, to a certain extent, provides us with fruitful and insightful perspectives into Wang Yangming’s doctrine. And the majority of this literature, as if by tacit agreement, focuses on the interconnection between liangzhi and knowledge, whether it be innate, original, perfect, or moral knowledge. While this academic endeavor is credited with pushing forward studies of Chinese thought, it is the task of philosophy always to engage in the examination of established practices as well as the quest for new possibilities.Take Wing-tsit Chan’s English rendition of Wang’s Chuanxi lu 傳習錄: the translations of liangzhi into “innate or
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallRe-exploring Wang Yangming’s Theory of Liangzhi: Translation, Transliteration, and Interpretation2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressRe-exploring Wang Yangming’s Theory of Liangzhi: Translation, Transliteration, and InterpretationWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®993972016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Persons as Weakly Emergent: An Alternative Reading of Vasubandhu’s Ontology of Personshttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633053
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According to the Buddhist doctrine of Two Truths, there are no persons in our final ontology, but there are persons in our conventional ontology. What does it mean to say that persons exist conventionally? The Ābhidharmikas say that ultimately there are psychophysical tropes, called dharmas, certain collections or combinations of which are conventionally taken to be persons. We would then ask: what kind of reality is conventional reality, and what is the metaphysical relation between conventional reality and ultimate reality as pertains to persons?Recently there have been various attempts to understand Buddhist philosophy by using contemporary analytical methods and theories. Among the prominent scholars in this
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallPersons as Weakly Emergent: An Alternative Reading of Vasubandhu’s Ontology of Persons2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressPersons as Weakly Emergent: An Alternative Reading of Vasubandhu’s Ontology of PersonsWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®557712016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Interdependence and Nonduality: On the Linguistic Strategy of the Platform Sūtrahttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633054
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Although Chan, or Zen, Buddhism traditionally claimed itself as a special transmission outside doctrinal teachings that eschews the written word, it has long been praised for its improvisational, atypical, intriguing, and intricate use of words. Prominent Chan masters are characteristically skillful in employing paradoxical and aporetic phrases, figurative and poetic expressions, negations, questions, repetitions, and so forth, to express their thoughts, indicate their awakened states of mind, cut off the interlocutor’s habitual dualistic thinking, or evoke in him or her an experience of awakening. This fact, among others, has led some contemporary scholars to claim that the Chan experience of awakening does not
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallInterdependence and Nonduality: On the Linguistic Strategy of the Platform Sūtra2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressInterdependence and Nonduality: On the Linguistic Strategy of the Platform SūtraWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®873602016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Creation and Causality in Chinese-Jesuit Polemical Literaturehttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633055
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In Giulio Aleni’s The True Source of the Myriad Things (Wanwu zhen yuan 萬物真原) (1628) chapter 4 contains the following question and answer:One might say that it is like seeds: from only one seed the subsequent branches, trunk, and blossoms are produced in a truly spontaneous manner. There need not be an external creator. All things have their own inherent natures, and they come forth on the basis of their inherent natures spontaneously; why must they have some external maker?1I [i.e., Aleni] say: The sprouting of a seed cannot be separated from the efficient cause. Suppose that the seed had no prior tree to produce it. Then the present tree would not have come to be. Therefore the prior tree is considered the
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallCreation and Causality in Chinese-Jesuit Polemical Literature2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressCreation and Causality in Chinese-Jesuit Polemical LiteratureWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®1021422016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Buddhist Reductionism, Fictionalism about the Self, and Buddhist Fictionalismhttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633056
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Buddhist reductionism (BR) is the view that there is no self and that, strictly speaking, our talk of persons should be better understood as talk of fictional entities.1 The version of BR introduced by Mark Siderits assigns a fictional status to our talk of temporally extended persons because of the idea that entirely giving up everyday alleged references to persisting people would be impractical and, possibly, even disadvantageous to the minimization of suffering. Although many Buddhists have recommended that we should ultimately renounce the idea that unchanging entities exist, dispensing with apparent reference to persons raises deep concerns about the applicability of moral concepts and virtues (moral
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallBuddhist Reductionism, Fictionalism about the Self, and Buddhist Fictionalism2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressBuddhist Reductionism, Fictionalism about the Self, and Buddhist FictionalismWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®935132016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13On Nāgārjuna’s Ontological and Semantic Paradoxhttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633057
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In one of his key texts, the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Nāgārjuna famously sets out to refute the ontology of essence.1 He presents numerous arguments to show that things don’t exist essentially—that is, that things are empty of essence or inherent existence. The doctrine of emptiness has been variously understood by traditional and contemporary commentators. Most radical is the recent interpretation presented by Garfield and Priest (2003). They have rationally reconstructed Nāgārjuna’s doctrine of emptiness as an endorsement of the contradictory nature of reality. According to them, Nāgārjuna can be seen to be arguing that the way in which things exist in reality and what we can truly say about them must be
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallOn Nāgārjuna’s Ontological and Semantic Paradox2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressOn Nāgārjuna’s Ontological and Semantic ParadoxWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®654182016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Philosophical Reflections on the “Fish Happiness” Anecdotehttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633058
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The “Fish Happiness” anecdote in the Zhuangzi is a literary gem, a well-wrought urn, which simultaneously reflects and informs the “Autumn Floods” chapter,1 as well as the text as a whole.2 Despite its polish and surface clarity, the anecdote has afforded a variety of readings. Its points and assumptions tend to be muted or understated in pun, so the reader is pressed to bring his or her own intellectual wits to bear. Indeed, one wonders if the fish happiness anecdote wasn’t intended as a sort of Rorschach test for the reader.3In what follows I offer a reading, nudge some insights from the happy-fish anecdote, and share some philosophical reflections. Given Zhuangzi’s avowed skepticism regarding positions and
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallPhilosophical Reflections on the “Fish Happiness” Anecdote2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressPhilosophical Reflections on the “Fish Happiness” AnecdoteWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®542272016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Intellect and Will in Zhu Xi and Meister Eckharthttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633059
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Such is the significance of the question concerning intellect and will that it has been discussed in both the Confucian and the Christian traditions and has even triggered two different schools of thought within each tradition. In Confucianism, it speaks of the fundamental divergence between lixue 理學 (the school of Principle) and xinxue 心學 (the school of mind) in the Neo-Confucian movement. In the Christian tradition, it speaks of the difference between the Franciscans and the Dominicans. A comparative study of Zhu Xi, the leading master of lixue in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in China, and Eckhart, the scholastic Dominican master in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Latin world, will give us
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallIntellect and Will in Zhu Xi and Meister Eckhart2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressIntellect and Will in Zhu Xi and Meister EckhartWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®925052016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13From Practice to Theory: Sungmoon Kim on Confucian Democracyhttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633060
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Sungmoon Kim’s Confucian Democracy in East Asia: Theory and Practice is a brilliant and engaging contribution to our understanding of democratic theory and practice.1 The title of my comment here emphasizes the innovative way in which Kim moves from practice to theory by relying on the vibrant Confucian civil society in South Korea as both the normative inspiration for and practical reflection of his model of Confucian democracy (p. 22). In the first section below, I highlight three interrelated ways in which Kim’s book is methodologically quite interesting and then pose some questions about the relation between theory and practice as framed by the book. In the second section, I turn to what I take to be one of the
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallFrom Practice to Theory: Sungmoon Kim on Confucian Democracy2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressFrom Practice to Theory: Sungmoon Kim on Confucian DemocracyWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®301972016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13What Kind of Democracy Is a Confucian Democracy?: A Response to Jeffrey Flynnhttp://muse.jhu.edu/article/633061
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Jeff Flynn’s comments on my methodological pluralism as well as the way I do political theory, namely explanatory evaluation, capture remarkably well what I struggled with most in writing Confucian Democracy in East Asia: Theory and Practice. As Flynn rightly notes, my research questions were inspired by actual problems with which contemporary East Asians (particularly Koreans) commonly struggle, and my goal was to derive philosophical inspirations from the actual social, cultural, and political realities of East Asia for normative political theory of Confucian democracy. To put this into a more personal perspective, my aim was to come up with a theory that would make sense to living East Asians (and I am one of
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallWhat Kind of Democracy Is a Confucian Democracy?: A Response to Jeffrey Flynn2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressWhat Kind of Democracy Is a Confucian Democracy?: A Response to Jeffrey FlynnWittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®225722016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Schopenhauer’s Encounter with Indian Thought: Representation and Will and Their Indian Parallels by Stephen Cross (review)http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633062
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From the first part of the title, Schopenhauer’s Encounter with Indian Thought, the reader could expect a study of the influence that Indian philosophy had on Schopenhauer. And even though this expectation will be met, Stephen Cross primarily presents a well-documented analysis of parallels between Schopenhauer’s philosophy and that of the Buddhist schools of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra (second and fourth centuries), of the early Advaita Vedānta (ca. seventh century), and those of other configurations of religious and philosophical ideas prevalent in India. Cross employs their philosophical deliberations to elucidate questions posed by Schopenhauer: in this sense a meeting of Schopenhauer with Indian thinking does take
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallSchopenhauer’s Encounter with Indian Thought: Representation and Will and Their Indian Parallels by Stephen Cross (review)2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressSchopenhauer’s Encounter with Indian Thought: Representation and Will and Their Indian Parallels by Stephen Cross (review)Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®173742016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Kritik der symbolischen Formen I: Symbolische Form und Funktion by Raji C. Steineck (review)http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633063
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For any reader with knowledge of the works of Ernst Cassirer, the question that will come to mind on approaching Raji C. Steineck’s Kritik der symbolischen Formen I: Symbolische Form und Funktion is: Why Japan? Cassirer’s great range of writings on the history of thought, culture, and symbol involves no sustained attention to Japanese culture. Cassirer also never addresses problems of East-West philosophy, nor did he, unlike some other German thinkers in the twentieth century, engage in correspondence with Japanese thinkers. In the first volume of Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, Cassirer does make reference in several places to the Japanese language based on Johann Joseph Hoffmann’s Japanische Sprachlehre
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallKritik der symbolischen Formen I: Symbolische Form und Funktion by Raji C. Steineck (review)2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressKritik der symbolischen Formen I: Symbolische Form und Funktion by Raji C. Steineck (review)Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®92182016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy by Jonathan C. Gold (review)http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633064
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Vasubandhu is perhaps the most influential figure in the history of Buddhist philosophy, yet the very breadth of his contribution across many schools and traditions has led to a fragmentation of his works, as interpreters have tended to read them through the lens of narrow scholastic perspectives, finding little continuity or coherence. Some modern scholars, doubtful that anyone could have held such varied views, have gone so far as to divide Vasubandhu himself into two distinct philosophers, with two different and irreconcilable views. In his recent book, Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy, Jonathan Gold offers for the first time a unified picture of Vasubandhu, extracting the driving
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallPaving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy by Jonathan C. Gold (review)2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressPaving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy by Jonathan C. Gold (review)Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®263442016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13The Philosophy of Lokāyata: A Review and Reconsideration by Bijayananda Kar (review)http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633065
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The paucity of classical sources concerning the Cārvāka/Lokāyata school is mirrored by a scarcity of contemporary scholarship. On that note, this book is a welcome contribution. The subtitle of this book promises “a review and reconstruction.” There is some review of classical and contemporary sources (although perhaps not quite enough); however, the bulk of the book is Kar’s reconstruction of what he thinks the Cārvākas might have or should have said. I will follow Kar in using “Cārvāka” and “Lokāyata” interchangeably to refer to the classical Indian school usually taken to endorse materialism, atheism, hedonism, and/or skepticism.Kar’s book consists of an introduction and conclusion with six chapters on a variety
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallThe Philosophy of Lokāyata: A Review and Reconsideration by Bijayananda Kar (review)2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressThe Philosophy of Lokāyata: A Review and Reconsideration by Bijayananda Kar (review)Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®98292016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Mestari Kongin Keskustelut: Kungfutselaisuuden ydinolemus (The discourses of Master Kong: The essence of Confucianism) by Jyrki Kallio (review)http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633066
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The Discourses of Master Kong: The Essence of Confucianism (hereafter Master Kong), written in Finnish by Jyrki Kallio, is a laudable work on Confucianism not only for students of Chinese philosophy but for a broader audience as well. The book is the first comprehensive work on Confucianism in the Finnish language: it comprises an annotated and critical complete translation of the Analects as well as longer selected and annotated translations from the Guodian corpus and central early Confucian classics such as the Mengzi and Xunzi; it also revisits texts from later Confucian thinkers. This lucidly written work is more than a translation of the seminal Confucian Analects; it is a handbook of Confucian philosophy and
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallMestari Kongin Keskustelut: Kungfutselaisuuden ydinolemus (The discourses of Master Kong: The essence of Confucianism) by Jyrki Kallio (review)2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressMestari Kongin Keskustelut: Kungfutselaisuuden ydinolemus (The discourses of Master Kong: The essence of Confucianism) by Jyrki Kallio (review)Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®285482016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Metaphor and Metaphilosophy: Philosophy as Combat, Play, and Aesthetic Experience by Sarah A. Mattice (review)http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633067
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What is philosophy? What is metaphor? Could thinking (i.e., thinking philosophy and, for that matter, thinking about thinking, a.k.a. metaphilosophy) take place metaphorically? If one follows the mainstream Western definition of philosophy (namely that philosophy is strictly an enterprise of analytical reasoning by means of rigid arguments and logic), the answer to the latter question would certainly be negative. Metaphors are perceived as primitive, pre-analytical, and imprecise—thus pre-philosophical! Drawing on multiple cross-cultural resources, Metaphor and Metaphilosophy: Philosophy as Combat, Play, and Aesthetic Experience by Sarah A. Mattice insightfully challenges this widespread assumption in the current
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallMetaphor and Metaphilosophy: Philosophy as Combat, Play, and Aesthetic Experience by Sarah A. Mattice (review)2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressMetaphor and Metaphilosophy: Philosophy as Combat, Play, and Aesthetic Experience by Sarah A. Mattice (review)Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®116732016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Heaven and Earth Are Not Humane: The Problem of Evil in Classical Chinese Philosophy by Franklin Perkins (review)http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633068
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Why do bad things happen to good people? Why isn’t good moral intention always rewarded? Franklin Perkins discusses these challenging questions about good and evil in his recent book Heaven and Earth Are not Humane: The Problem of Evil in Classical Chinese Philosophy. As the title suggests, Perkins focuses on the unique Chinese notion of heaven (tian 天) and its related philosophical issues of undeserved misfortune and limited moral efficacy. The subtitle of the book is equally intriguing. Perkins discusses these philosophical issues from the perspective of the problem of evil. The problem of evil is the problem of the positive (non-derivative and intrinsic) existence of evil and its seemingly random and arbitrary
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallHeaven and Earth Are Not Humane: The Problem of Evil in Classical Chinese Philosophy by Franklin Perkins (review)2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressHeaven and Earth Are Not Humane: The Problem of Evil in Classical Chinese Philosophy by Franklin Perkins (review)Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®158242016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Moral Relativism and Chinese Philosophy: David Wong and His Critics ed. by Yang Xiao and Yong Huang (review)http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633069
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David B. Wong’s 2006 monograph, Natural Moralities: A Defense of Pluralistic Relativism,1 presents and defends a sophisticated and nuanced form of moral relativism that has been in development since his 1984 work, Moral Relativity (Xiao and Huang 2014, p. 1). The present volume, Moral Relativism and Chinese Philosophy, is a collection of six critical essays focused on Natural Moralities, which are followed by Wong’s responses to each of his critics. I see the greater contribution of this volume, when we consider the title’s conjuncts, to be the discussion of moral relativism, so in this review I will leave aside the debates over how best to interpret various Chinese philosophers.In Natural Moralities, Wong draws
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallMoral Relativism and Chinese Philosophy: David Wong and His Critics ed. by Yang Xiao and Yong Huang (review)2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressMoral Relativism and Chinese Philosophy: David Wong and His Critics ed. by Yang Xiao and Yong Huang (review)Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®167432016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Visions of Peace: Asia and the West ed. by Takashi Shogimen and Vicki A. Spencer (review)http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633070
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Peace, compared to war, receives scant attention. Comprised of nine essays drawn from a 2009 conference, the essays collected in Visions of Peace: Asia and the West, edited by Takashi Shogimen and Vicki A. Spencer, reach wide and far to push against that neglect. The essays focus on different conceptions of and plans for political peace. Even more impressively, they generally avoid well-trodden paths like Kant’s Toward Perpetual Peace and instead draw upon Asian traditions and more obscure Western traditions. The first essay, for instance, discusses the Greek goddess of peace and, contra various modern scholars, how peace was in fact an ideal for the Greeks and thought to be achievable. The final essay is on Jeremy
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallVisions of Peace: Asia and the West ed. by Takashi Shogimen and Vicki A. Spencer (review)2016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressVisions of Peace: Asia and the West ed. by Takashi Shogimen and Vicki A. Spencer (review)Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®57302016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13Index to Volume 66http://muse.jhu.edu/article/633072
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Achieving the Way: Confucian Virtue Politics and the Problem of Dirty Hands, Sungmoon Kim, 1 : 152–176Ames, Roger T. and Peter D. Hershock, Introduction [to “Special Issue: The World Consortium for Research in Confucian Cultures 世界儒學 研究聯合會”], 3 : 699–703Antony, Devasia M., Play, Theater, and Nondualism: A Philosophical Meditation, 1 : 5–12Approaches to Global Ethics: Michael Sandel’s Justice and Li Zehou’s Harmony, Paul J. D’Ambrosio [in “Special Issue: The World Consortium for Research in Confucian Cultures 世界儒學研究聯合會”—“Li Zehou: World Philosopher”], 3 : 720–738Ashton, Geoff, and Sonja Tanner, From Puzzling Pleasures to Moral Practices: Aristotle and Abhinavagupta on the Aesthetics and Ethics of Tragedy, 1 :
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Project MUSE®http://muse.jhu.edu/2016-12-09T00:00:00-05:00http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/156/image/coversmallIndex to Volume 662016-10-13text/htmlen-USUniversity of Hawai'i PressIndex to Volume 66Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Wang, Yangming,Neo-ConfucianismJesuitsNāgārjuna,Zhu, Xi,Eckhart,DemocracySchopenhauer, Arthur,Cassirer, Ernst,Philosophy, ChinesePeacePhilosophy East & West2016-10-132016TWOProject MUSE®490432016-12-09T00:00:00-05:002016-10-13